Since then I have been in contact with the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which has finally agreed that I lost £55,126.

The FSCS maximum payout in such cases is £50,000 and I have now received this. I am sure your article backed up my case and I am truly grateful. At the age of 78, cheques like this are very rare.

Scheme: Mutual Benefits Corporation was an American company based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Well done for sticking with your claim. You have faced lots of delays, including the bankruptcy of your financial adviser, which is why your claim had to be transferred from the Ombudsman to the compensation scheme.

Mutual Benefits Corporation was an American company based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It bought life insurance policies that were held by people it claimed were terminally ill and it then sold shares in those policies through agents in the US and Britain.

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On paper, the idea should have been an all-round winner. The policyholder got a lump sum that would make their final months far more comfortable.

The investor got a stake in the policy proceeds, with profits advertised at between 12 per cent and 72 per cent. The agent got a generous commission. And MBC pocketed a hefty cut for putting the whole deal together.

What went wrong was that the entire set-up was a scam. Policyholders certified as terminally ill lived on, not just for months but for years. Medical records were bogus and MBC’s 30,000 investors lost around £500million.

Jailed: Steven Steiner was sentenced to 15 years in jail after acting as the front man at Mutual Benefits Corporation based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

I wrote about MBC twice. My first story was in 2004, when I reported that behind the scenes, MBC was run by two brothers, Joel and Leslie Steiner.

Digging back, I found that in 1998 they had paid more than £500,000 in an out-of-court settlement after allegations they cheated 1,200 investors.

I also warned that MBC was facing investigations or legal proceedings in three states over dodgy deals involving life policies. By the time of my 2008 report, everything had hit the fan.

The doctor who issued the false medical reports was jailed for ten years. And MBC president Peter Lombardi was given 20 years.

Since then Steven Steiner, who I named as the front man for his two tainted brothers, has been jailed for 15 years.

Leslie Steiner has died of natural causes. And two years ago, in the final trial out of 13 arising from the fraud, Joel was sentenced to 20 years.

But why was this scheme even marketed in Britain? Your adviser recommended it to you even after my 2004 report.

'TSB, LISTEN TO ME...I AM NOT MR JONAS!'

Confusion: Ms J.A. received a TSB statement for a Mr Jonas

Ms J.A. writes:In 2014 I received a TSB statement showing a Mr Jonas had opened an account from my home address.

It showed numerous transactions, just a few minutes apart. This looked suspicious so I contacted the bank. It told me to bring the statement to a branch in Leeds, though I live in Buckinghamshire.

Eventually it said I could email it. I also contacted Action Fraud and thought that would be the end of it. No such luck. I have received statement after statement, letters about non-payment and now – 18 months on – they still arrive. TSB is just not listening.

Tony Hetherington said: You would think that banks would be glad to be tipped off when someone opens a dodgy account. The longer the trickster has the account, the more likely they are to run up an overdraft or misuse a credit card.

I asked staff at TSB’s head office to intervene and I enquired whether this was a deliberate fraud or a slip-up over the address of a genuine customer.

It seems the bank still can’t decide, but TSB told me: ‘We’re really sorry that Ms A received letters addressed to a different person.

‘We’ve investigated the matter and are pleased to confirm that no further letters will be sent to Ms A’s address in respect of that customer.’

And I had alerted the then City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, saying that MBC was a disaster waiting to happen. Its response was that it was not even sure such schemes counted as investments.

I am really delighted that after all these years, you have recovered almost all your money.

But if I were a financial adviser, required to chip in to the compensation scheme, I would be hopping up and down with anger at having to foot the bill.

This is because the City regulator allowed MBC’s agents to carry on selling this scam even after the writing was on the wall in letters a mile high.

£360 GOES ADRIFT IN FUNDS TRANSFER

Ms S. H. writes:I transferred £15,000 to Portugal through Nationwide Building Society, which charged £20, but only £14,640 arrived.

When I asked about the outstanding £360, Nationwide promised to investigate. More than a month later it said the £360 would be credited to my account by an unnamed ‘intermediary bank’. There was no apology, no interest and so far no £360 either. Can you help?

Tony Hetherington said: Your instructions were that the whole £15,000 should arrive in Portugal in sterling. But Nationwide used the unnamed bank as its agent and says someone there made a ‘keying error’. The result was to change your pounds into euros, with a loss of £360, leaving you short-changed and feeling awkward as the person on the receiving end of the money expected the full amount.

Nationwide told me it ran checks to follow the route your money took, spotted the bank’s mistake and put it right, though nobody told you. The missing £360 has been sent and Nationwide is apologising with £250 for the inconvenience.

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk.

Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.

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